US: World needs Black Sea Grain Shipping Initiative

US Department of State Spokesperson Ned Price stated that negotiations to extend the Black Sea Grain Shipment Initiative are at a critical point, and said that the world needs this initiative. The daily press conference also brought up negotiations to extend the Black Sea Grain Shipment Initiative, which was signed between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN upon the initiatives of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and aimed at safely shipping Ukraine’s grain and grain products to the world market via Turkey. Stating that he would not go into the evaluations of the signatories of the agreement regarding the negotiations, Spokesperson Price said, “We are at a critical point in the negotiations. The extension of the initiative requires the consent of all parties, and the Secretary-General is working on this.” Noting that their position on the Black Sea Grain Shipment Initiative is clear, Price said, “The world needs this (Grain Shipment Initiative). We believe that its duration should be extended and its scope expanded.” Price, who stated that grain and grain product shipments stopped in the region with the start of the Russia-Ukraine war and that this increased world food prices by 30 percent, reminded that millions of tons of grain were released to the world market with the cooperation of the UN, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia. Price stated that Russia's grain exports have reached pre-war levels for a while now and said that the claims that Moscow's grain and fertilizer exports are blocked are not true. The spokesman reminded that the US also exempted Russian grain and fertilizer exports from sanctions.